Jonathan Wheatley’s driver pairing admission in eye-opening Red Bull comparison

Jonathan Wheatley has worked with a lot of driver pairings over his 35 years in F1, and believes Sauber’s current pairing is the closest he’s ever seen.

Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto form one of the closest teammate pairings on the F1 grid over the past 35 years, believes their current team boss Jonathan Wheatley.

Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto praised by Jonathan Wheatley

Reigning Formula 2 Champion Gabriel Bortoleto earned a seat with Sauber for his rookie season this year, with the Brazilian driver paired with experienced veteran Nico Hulkenberg as the German driver left Haas to join the Swiss squad ahead of its takeover by Audi.

Both will remain with the squad as it transforms into Audi at the end of this season, and both have had a peaceful, collaborative season in which Sauber’s C45 has been diligently upgraded to become a regular points-scorer and even a podium finisher as Hulkenberg claimed his first-ever top-three finish at Silverstone.

While the German driver’s experience allowed him to start capitalising on the car’s growing potential a little earlier than Bortoleto could, both are now bringing home strong results. Hulkenberg has scored 37 points to lie ninth in the Drivers’ Championship, while Bortoleto occupies 17th with 14 points – his best result coming right before the summer break as his momentum builds.

For team boss Jonathan Wheatley, who is going through his first year in such a role after almost 20 years at Red Bull as a team manager and sporting director, the combination of youthful promise in Bortoleto and the patient wisdom of Hulkenberg has been a particularly harmonious combination.

Wheatley, whose career dates back 35 years, starting with Benetton in 1991, has worked with the likes of the Sebastian Vettel/Mark Webber combination, as well as Max Verstappen/Daniel Ricciardo, Fernando Alonso/Giancarlo Fisichella, and Michael Schumacher/Johnny Herbert.

But, in his eyes, the current driver pairing he has at Sauber trumps them all in terms of the ease with which they work together.

“I have to say that it’s the closest, most collaborative driver pairing, I think I can even remember in all my time in Formula 1,” Wheatley told media, including PlanetF1.com, after the Hungarian Grand Prix, in which Bortoleto secured a career-best finish of sixth place.

“Gabriel has a fantastic work ethic. He has a capacity for taking on new information. He’s proving every way to be the future star that we expected him to be, and Nico is part of that journey with him.

“On the other side of the engineering table, you’ve got this extraordinary experience in Nico’s proven talent. We’re talking about Gabby a lot today, but Nico did a tremendous job. You just don’t notice it because it didn’t result in a points finish!

“But, as a team, we’re very pleased with both of our drivers.”

With Bortoleto now starting to capitalise on the potential of the much-improved Sauber as he builds his own experience, Wheatley said he suspects the Brazilian driver will only get more impressive as the season goes on.

“It’s worth pointing out again that he hasn’t done 10,000 kilometers of testing of previous cars. He hasn’t done 10,000 kilometers in a Formula 1 car. It’s his first season in Formula 1,” he said.

“There are so many circuits that he’s not been to, and there’s some coming up that he hasn’t been to.

“He’s been able to deliver brilliantly over the last few races and circuits that he knows, and I think he’s matured as a driver, and he’s developed as a driver, and I think he’s going to be able to adapt to these new circuits much quicker than he did in the first half of the season.”

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What has Nico Hulkenberg had to say about working with Gabriel Bortoleto?

As the more experienced of the two drivers, Hulkenberg has had plenty of teammates over the years since entering Formula 1 in 2010.

Admitting that he didn’t know much about the young Brazilian driver before being paired with him for this year, the German driver said he’s enjoying working with Bortoleto.

“He’s a very young, bright, very fast guy, who is very dedicated, very focused, works really hard,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com in Hungary.

“He definitely has the right attitude, and he’s got the speed. It’s very impressive for me, for a rookie, seeing him that close as a teammate, seeing his data, listening to what he has to say after sessions and races.

“I think it’s very, very encouraging. He has everything you need to become a great driver and to have a long, successful career.

“It’s very good. It’s very healthy. We get along really well, but we push each other.

“It is competitive, but it is also in the interest of the team and helping each other by balancing each other out. So it’s been very positive and enjoyable.”

What has Gabriel Bortoleto had to say about working with Nico Hulkenberg?

Following on from Hulkenberg’s maiden podium, scoring the Hinwil-based team’s first podium since the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix, Bortoleto said that, from what he’s seen of the German driver during their time together so far, Hulkenberg’s talent deserves far more.

“Obviously, we know Nico is a super strong driver in Formula 1 and is known as a very great qualifier,” he said.

“Unfortunately, he didn’t have the podium before; now he does, and I really felt like he deserved much more than that because of the talent he has.

“Having him as a teammate, and having him on my side as well… he’s a very good teammate, we work very well together.

“We talk a lot about the car, what we need, or things that we discuss. So I think it’s a very good relationship, and being able to be there fighting every single weekend, it’s something that makes me very happy, because it shows that I’m doing a good job.

“Even seeing how good a season he’s having, being able to be there, it’s always something positive.”

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